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2016, 04-19 Study Session MINUTES SPOKANE VALLEY COUNCIL MEETING STUDY SESSION Spokane Valley City Hall Council Chambers Spokane Valley,Washington April 19,2016 Attendance: Councilmembers Staff Rod Higgins, Mayor Mark Calhoun, Deputy City Manager Arne Woodard, Deputy Mayor Cary Driskell, City Attorney Dean Grafos, Councilmember Erik Lamb, Deputy City Attorney Chuck Hafner, Councilmember Chelsie Taylor, Finance Director Ed Pace, Councilmember Eric Guth, Public Works Director Sam Wood, Councilmember Mike Stone, Parks&Rec Director Bill Gothmann, Councilmember Pro Tern Morgan Koudelka, Sr. Administrative Analyst Carolbelle Branch, Public Information Officer Rick VanLeuven, Police Chief Christine Bainbridge, City Clerk Mayor Higgins called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. ROLL CALL: City Clerk Bainbridge called the roll; all Councilmembers were present. ACTION ITEMS: 1. First Reading Ordinance 16-005, LTGO Bond for City Hall -Mark Calhoun After City Clerk Bainbridge read the ordinance title, it was moved by Deputy Mayor Woodard and seconded, to advance Ordinance 16-005 to a second reading. Mr. Calhoun went over the background of the idea of a proposed city hall,which gained momentum early 2015 with the purchase of 3.38 acres at the former University City Mall site;he briefly went through the history of events since that land purchase,and mentioned that the bid opening for City Hall bids will be this Thursday; said we anticipate project financing of about$14.4 million overall with $6.3 million covered with cash set aside for this project; that the bond proceeds would be repaid over a thirty-year period in equal annual installments; that for the financing, a bond ordinance must be considered and adopted, and that bond counsel and our financial advisor will be assisting us through this process. Mr. Calhoun introduced Bond Counsel Deanna Gregory with Pacific Law Group, and member of the financial group Lindsey Sovde with Piper Jaffrey. Ms. Gregory went over some of the highlights of the bond ordinance, including that the second reading would be held during the May 10 Council meeting; said if all parameters can be met all will go as planned, and if not, they would come back to Council; said the ordinance authorizes all new money for the City Hall facility, payable from the City's general fund; said May 19 is the day of the pricing when the interest rates for the bonds will be set,and the contract with D.A. Davidson will be executed;said for the second reading they will also have a copy of the preliminary official statement, which is the offering document to be used by the underwriter to market the bonds to potential investors, and under federal security law,the City would take ownership of this statement; said a question arose the last time about federal filing requirements for bonds to be issued,and she explained that to be tax exempt, a form must be filed with the IRS; said her company will file that document.Ms. Sovde explained that as financial advisor, her company has the fiduciary responsibility to the City to make sure the bond prices fairly and all transactions are completed; said since the last time they met in March the interest rates dropped by another 25 base points, which is very favorable, making the interest for thirty-year bonds at about 3.10%; she said the interest rates won't be locked down until the bonds are priced May 19 so the rate will likely change, but it is trending in the right direction. Council Study Session:04-19-2016 Page 1 of 5 Approved by Council:05-10-2016 Mr. Calhoun stated that the bid opening is this Thursday, and next Tuesday Council will have an administrative report on that bid opening,with the bid award scheduled for the special May 3 meeting; said at that May 3 meeting,the bids will be presented with base bids and eight alternatives; that he is confident the base bid will be within the $14.4 million, but the entire project cost depends on the alternates chosen; he said he will have a spreadsheet on the screens to show how each alternate would impact the estimated bond payment and the total cost of the project. Mayor Higgins invited public comment;no comments were offered. Vote by Acclamation:In Favor: Unanimous. Opposed:None. Motion carried. NON-ACTION ITEMS: 2. Public Safety Ad Hoc Committees—Cary Driskell City Attorney Driskell introduced Center for Justice Executive Director Rick Eichstaedt. Mr. Driskell mentioned there are also some guests in the audience interested in tonight's discussion, and he introduced District Court Presiding Judge Walker, Judge Maurer, and District Court Clerk John Ritter. Mr. Driskell explained that this topic has evolved over time with several suggestions from Council and the community, and that he and Mr. Eichstaedt have had several discussions; and said if Council feels there are items not addressed, or where Council wants further discussion,to please let him know as he encourages and urges such discussion.Concerning a committee,Mr.Driskell suggested it would be advantageous to identify what Council wants covered within such a committee's mission, and similarly if Council wants to expand something in the future,that too is possible provided anything done is consistent with state regulations for the Council/Manager form of government in RCW 35A, as we would want to segregate policy for those things clearly handled by Council,with those things clearly handled by a City Manager. Mr.Driskell noted that additional concerns mentioned earlier include the topic of additional liability for the City; he said we have contracted with the Spokane County Sheriff's Office, making that an independent contractor relationship,which means we are limited in terms of what we can tell the service provider concerning what they can or should do or not do; said we are paying for the services so we don't control the manner, as we are paying for the end result; and said we do not want to breach that independent contractor relationship. Mr. Driskell said that as shown on page 3 of his Request for Council Action (RCA) form, he and Mr. Eichstaedt have not come to any conclusions when it comes to rendering opinions as to the adequacy of any report from the CAB(Citizens Advisory Board);and believe more time is needed to research this issue, including whether this could result in additional liability for either the County or the City, and whether doing so could breach the independent contractor relationship. Mr. Driskell stated that staff already does a considerable amount of contractor oversight on all public safety contracts, and that the City's Administrative Analysists Koudelka and Pietro pay particular attention to services provided to ensure we are getting the services we are paying for,and that they are consistent with what is contained in the contract; he said our Administrative Analysists are exceedingly detailed in their work and how our contracts compare with other jurisdictions, adding that we pay less than more services than other jurisdictions. Mr. Driskell went over the six items under "F" on pages two and three in his RCA. Concerning the Fire District,he explained that when we incorporated,we didn't have a contract for police and didn't know what we were going to do concerning fire; said there were discussions early on in incorporation about continuing with the fire districts or form our own,and the eventual decision was to annex into the two fire districts;he said they are separate jurisdictions and we have no authority over them, and we have developed a good rapport with them over the years. Concerning the law enforcement services,Mr.Driskell explained that the term of the contract is four years, and if there is no notice of termination from either side, the contract automatically renews; he said there is an eighteen-month period during which the parties could give notice of termination, which is between the end of the 30' month and the end of the 48th month, and that during such period, the Council could decide to undertake all the tasks necessary to bring law enforcement functions in-house, with those functions including payroll, facility, personnel, finance, legal etc., which would be an extensive amount of work, so if that were Council's plan, staff would have to determine how to make it all work,with staff hitting the ground running at the end of that transition period. Setting up a separate oversight or citizen review committee,Mr.Driskell explained,can be done but he said he feels more research is needed concerning the liability issues,and said he is actively researching that; he Council Study Session:04-19-2016 Page 2 of 5 Approved by Council:05-10-2016 said there is a potential cause for liability for the City and it would not be unreasonable to think because of an action or inaction that resulted in death or serious injury, that the CAB would review the reports and documents provided from the Sheriff's Office but if we set up a separate committee, ours would have limitations that the CAB doesn't because of the Public Records Act and the need to provide our committee with police reports,which would probably include redactions; additionally, our committee members would not be entitled to coroner's reports so we would have competing committees likely rendering differing opinions. Mr. Eichstaedt stated that the challenge is that there is potential to review the work of an agency to which Spokane Valley has no hiring or firing decisions in regard to specific officers; said it creates an advisory role to answer to the City Manager or Council; said he struggled with that and wondered what role makes sense given that limitation. Mr. Eichstaedt said there has been a lot of concern in the community, and he mentioned Kathryn Olson, former President of NACOLE (National Association of Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement) met with some of the Councilmembers and they recognize there are some limitations about how the investigatory process is currently working;there are also concerns about potential liability with an oversight body since such an entity would be created to point out potential wrongs and could issue findings that could be used in a lawsuit; said having a committee for the benefit of citizens makes sense, but said we could face some potential liability to ensure the policing we receive is what we expect and are paying for; said there is already a lot of redundancy in oversight and adding more is not necessarily a bad thing; that we have the Sheriff's Office internal affairs, the CAB; a team of state patrol, and others including some federal agencies; sometimes an attorney general can investigate issues; said redundancy is built-in and it makes sense as we want to make sure the policing is done right; we need to identify the problems and reduce the future liability while ensuring that citizens trust the government and the policy. He agreed with the issues concerning the Public Record Act (PRA), and that the committee would only get what could be publicly released under the PRA. Mr. Driskell stressed that we recognize appropriate oversight of law enforcement functions is very important, but the struggle is how to make that work effectively in a contractual relationship;the function of analyzing and rendering opinions as to the sufficiency from the CAB is a concern from a liability standpoint within a contract structure; and perhaps Council could have discussions about how important a citizen oversight committee is, and whether to cancel the contract and take the service in-house; and if we take the service in-house, Council would need serious, long discussions with Council and the community. Mr. Driskell said he continues to research these issues. Council discussion included mention of June 30 as the beginning of that "open window" to terminate; Councilmember Pace said his original intent was not about whether to terminate or bring services in-house, and said the intent was never about telling the public safety or agency how to do their jobs, but more of a mechanism to get feedback, and if we had a committee, Council would direct our committee to avoid competing opinions. Mr. Driskell stated that tonight's information is an opinion and the idea was to point out the various considerations for Council to do something or not, and to make sure Council goes into this fully aware of options, and if Council wants a mission, to make sure that it is a clear mission. Councilmember Pace said his idea was for this to be an ad hoc committee with a specific mission and timeframe, of perhaps one year; then Council could decide to continue the committee or not; and said he will bring this up again tonight during the advance agenda discussion. Mr. Calhoun said that he and Mr. Driskell discussed this topic and will support any decision Council collectively makes, but need to find a way to do this without taking on any additional liability or any additional staff; he said it was suggested this committee would be similar to the Planning Commission, but pointed out we are appropriately staffed to meet the needs of the Planning Commission and that we have never had this ad hoc committee service; that it would be a new service and we can do that with existing staff,although it will be yet another demand on particularly the City Attorney and the Administrative Analysts. Mr. Driskell said that a scope of work would need to be determined, and we would need to communicate with the Sheriff Office to see if they would agree with any modification of terms; said the agreement is an interlocal agreement so amendments can only be made by Council. Council Study Session:04-19-2016 Page 3 of 5 Approved by Council:05-10-2016 Councilmember Hafner said he doesn't want to set the committee before having all the necessary information and knowing exactly what the responsibilities are with the existing CAB and how they would remedy any situations.Councilmember Grafos said he feels this is a duplication of what the Sheriffs Office has; said he feels a committee would weaken the immunity of the City and represents a huge risk; that he thinks it is a slippery road and we would be going in the wrong direction. Councilmember Gothmann said a city in Louisiana went through something similar, and eventually had to disband their police department because of skyrocketing liability insurance costs; said this city was organized to run very efficiently with low cost, and another layer of government and increasing liability is not a good direction to go; said we have that lower liability with the Sheriff Office and the County having the liability so it makes sense that the oversight board would report to the County; said such a committee it would increase the burden on the attorney's office, and said this is not a wise direction to go. In response to a question from Deputy Mayor Woodard about negotiating our contract, Mr. Driskell said we negotiate the contract with the Sheriffs Office but he doesn't know if the CAB has anything to do with our negotiations as they have not been a part in the past, and that we can unquestionably change items in the contract if desired. Mr. Driskell reiterated that he doesn't have all the answers and would like to have more information before rendering a final opinion. There was some discussion about where on an advance agenda to place this issue with Councilmember Pace suggesting in about a month. Councilmember Pace also said Council is flexible with the dates for this to come before Council again; he said that saying that such a committee is another layer of government is political hyperbole, and the same with the inflating insurance costs. Mr. Driskell said he would prefer at this point to continue the research and present back to Council with his analysis. Council concurred. Mr. Eichstaedt ended by saying that it is important to define something that makes sense and serve a role and is a meaningful function while not being overly duplicate. Mayor Higgins called for a recess at 7:13 p.m., he reconvened the meeting at 7:25 p.m. 3. Port District Update—John Hohman Community and Economic Development Director Hohman explained that tonight is an opportunity for a brief update on the port district study, which was conducted through GSI's (Greater Spokane, Inc.) commission of Maul Foster&Alongi, Inc.;he noted that GSI sought contributions to create a business plan and we contributed $7500 to the effort; said he has staff participating on the committee which meets about once a month; said the plan shows there are 75 port districts in Washington,eleven of which are deep water ports; said the Port Authority is mainly an economic development agency and that GSI is our designated agency; he said the mission of the Port Authority is to "create economic growth and prosperity in all of greater Spokane County through the attraction of private sector market investment, which drives the creation of livable wage jobs." Mr. Hohman explained that this would be a separate government with three commissioners, similar to the structure of the County government; he briefly explained how ports are financed, along with the projected budget on pages 16 and 17; said the idea would be to have a very lean staff of about five, and that they would contract out for a lot of the services; he said staff has submitted some comments on the information on page 36 seeking clarification on some financial points, like actual revenues, as in comparing the revenues listed on page 17, the figures seemed aggressive with large differences between the first and second year of existence; said there were some technical issues and he is waiting for a revised draft, which might happen this week, and that their next steps would be to try to get this on a ballot measure, perhaps fall of 2017; there was also some discussion about having a ballot issue for the establishment of a port district and at the same time determine the commissioners; and said at this point we are participating on an information level to keep Council appraised of the proposal. Councilmember Grafos asked if there is a sense of whether this is favorable from other entities, and Mr. Hohman replied that it is too early to tell; that they are waiting to see what the financial information looks like and trying to get more detail; he noted that as of now,the Airport has chosen to be outside the district. Councilmember Pace asked if we have any say whether we participate or not or if the Board of County Commissioners can put this on the ballot to cover the entire County. Mr. Hohman explained there will be an opportunity to weigh-in on whether or not to support this and is waiting for the additional information to help determine an appropriate time to get Council's viewpoint on this issue. Councilmember Pace said that a port district is an extra layer of government that will cost taxpayers. Council Study Session:04-19-2016 Page 4 of 5 Approved by Council:05-10-2016 4. Review of Spokane Valley Municipal Code Chapter 2.30: Chief of Police—Mark Calhoun Mr.Calhoun explained that with the June 30,2016 retirement of Police Chief VanLeuven, a new chief will need to be appointed; that Spokane Valley Municipal Code (SVMC) 2.30.030 notes that it is the City Manager who makes the appointment; and that SVMC 2.30.040 states that it is the City Council and City Manager who confer to establish qualifications for the position, with such qualifications approved by resolution. Mr. Calhoun noted that Councilmember Pace had asked for this discussion during the April 5 Council meeting, and therefore, Mr. Calhoun has included the attachments of the Code section, the Resolution,the Police Chief Job Description,and some job description development guidelines in the event Council desired to revise the job description. Mr. Calhoun noted that interestingly,the Police Chief is not an employee;and per section 9.1 of the Interlocal Agreement for Law Enforcement contract,it is the Sheriff who recommends at least three individuals for the City Manager to choose from, and that those individuals must be of the rank of Lieutenant or higher. Mr. Calhoun said he has not quite finalized the process for making a decision from those three recommended to him by the Sheriff. 5. Advance Agenda—Mayor Higgins Councilmember Pace said he would like the citizen oversight issue to come back to Council in about a month, and to time that with Mr. Driskell's ability to finish his research and the Deputy City Manager's work on the bond issue.Deputy Mayor Woodard said that options include doing nothing,seeing if the CAB (Citizens Advisory Board)could be modified to work more independently,the potential of having a contract for an as-needed independent,private investigation,and/or report back on the NACOLE final report,which should be available in a few weeks. Mr. Driskell and Mr. Calhoun said they would work to bring the issue back in about thirty days, with Council agreeing that the timeline is flexible. Mr. Driskell also mentioned his continuing concern with the liability issue. It was also agreed that of the issues mentioned in Mr. Driskell's Request for Council Action form, that the focus should be the impact such a committee would have on the law enforcement agreement rather than the issues concerning the Fire Districts, or utility providers. Other advance agenda items included mention from Mayor Higgins about this Friday's Regional Council of Governments Meeting at the Fairgrounds,as well as the Kiwanis hosting a helmet painting this Saturday, also at the Fairgrounds. Councilmember Grafos repeated his desire to have a future agenda topic as soon as possible,to include discussion about an investigation into the firing of the City Manager. 6. Council Comments—Mayor Higgins Councilmember Pace mentioned that the official dedication of Spokane Valley Tech school will be held next Tuesday at 6 p.m., and he has been asked to give a short address, so is asking to be excused from the next week's Council meeting for the first half hour. 7. City Manager Comments—Mark Calhoun Mr. Calhoun mentioned that public works staff are working on the TIGER grant application, and have submitted the FASTLANE grant application, and he extended thanks to them all for the extra effort in applying for these grants. It was moved by Deputy Mayor Woodard, seconded an unanimously agreed to adjourn. The meeting adjourned at 7:51 p.m. ATTES : L.R. Higgins,Mayor Christine Bainbridge,—City Clerk Council Study Session:04-19-2016 Page 5 of 5 Approved by Council:05-10-2016